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Rural Colorado county educates kids about gun safety

By April Nowicki CU News Corps

Posted:
11/30/2013 03:00:00 PM MST

Hinsdale County Sheriff Ron Bruce dresses in full tactical gear when he conducts lockdown simulation drills in Lake City s schools. Police officers went into the classroom, Bruce said. They took in their tactical gear so the kids could see what we look like, and we let them see the firearms that would be used in an incident.
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CU News Corps
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In remote Hinsdale County, in the southwest part of Colorado, Danielle Worthen was concerned. Her 5-year-old daughter went to daycare in the home of another family that Worthen knew kept guns in the house.

The Worthen family didn't own any guns, and Worthen wasn't sure how to most effectively educate her daughter about guns and firearm safety. She approached Hinsdale County Sheriff Ron Bruce with her dilemma.

"I asked him if he would consider doing a rudimentary class exposing some of these young kids to guns," Worthen said. "And he said, 'I'll talk to the [superintendent] and have a class, showing these kids, letting them hold a gun. Talk to them about the power and all that stuff.'"

Bruce organized the student firearm education class, and about 15 students from the Lake City Community School attended. That was 10 years ago.

Colorado Gun Dialog

CU News Corps, an investigative news project that operates within the Journalism & Mass Communication program at the University of Colorado, has spent much of 2013 tracking Colorado gun deaths. Read more about the Colorado Gun Dialog project at coloradogundialog.com .

Today, Lake City -- the only town in Hinsdale County -- is known as the most remote county in the U.S., designated so in 2007 by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Although gun ownership may seem ubiquitous there, gun violence is rare and no gun deaths have occurred in the past two years in Hinsdale County, which is 1,123 square miles -- seven times the size of Denver County.

"It's the same issues here [as in the bigger counties], it's just that we all know each other," Worthen said. "We know each other's kids, everyone knows everyone's names. You get more entrenched."

More than half of the counties in Colorado are classified by the U.S. Census as "rural," and though kids growing up in those places may be part of tighter-knit communities, they may also be more likely to run across a firearm in their home or in the home of a friend.

More than 500 Coloradans killed themselves with guns in 2012, and some researchers say that gun safety education isn't enough, because just the presence of a firearm increases the risk of suicide. In Colorado in 2012, 11 suicides by gun took the lives of people age 18 or under, according to the U.S. Census.

CU News Corps, an investigative journalism project at the University of Colorado Boulder, is collecting statistics about gun deaths in Colorado. So far in 2013, in the 46 counties that have reported gun deaths, 195 people have killed themselves using a gun. Of those, five were teens age 18 or under. All five were residents of counties classified as "urban" by the state demography office. Seventeen counties have reported zero gun deaths, and all were in rural areas.

Worthen and her husband are confident that their now 15-year-old daughter, an only child, is well-informed. They still do not own any guns but have gone with friends to a shooting range in the past year. Worthen said that both she and her teen daughter feel more comfortable shooting a .22 rifle than a pistol.

Ten of Colorado's 63 counties are considered urban and are home to 75 percent of the population. The population density in those areas contributes to the higher suicide rate, but rural officials say initiating gun safety education for kids has potential to support a culture that can help keep communities safer. Strong family connections may also be a factor that help keep rural area gun violence and suicides down, they say.

Hinsdale County takes action

Even though Hinsdale County is seemingly unaffected by gun violence, gun safety and training are frequent lessons, particularly for young people in the wake of national mass shooting tragedies.

This year, the sheriff's office in Lake City is educating kids, parents and teachers on gun safety and what to do during an emergency school lockdown, which includes bringing unloaded firearms into the classroom and explaining to the students how they would be used to control an incident.

"We can't have our heads buried in the sand and say that it can't happen here, because it can," Bruce said. "It can happen anywhere in the country."

The first lockdown orientation session held in 2013 was for teachers, and took place after school let out for the day. Sheriff Bruce said that he was concerned with the outcome because several of the teachers were "petrified," even though the session was only a drill.

"When they were ordered on the loudspeaker to go through the process of locking down their classrooms, two of the teachers were literally in tears," Bruce said.

The next firearm safety and lockdown orientation was held in late October, and was for students, teachers and even parents. One parent attended.

"Police officers went into the classroom," Bruce said. "They took in their tactical gear so the kids could see what we look like, and we let them see the firearms that would be used in an incident."

Some parents voiced concerns to Bruce that kids would be traumatized by this type of presentation, but he disagrees and said that taking the "shock factor" out of firearms is important. Worthen agrees that more knowledge will help kids respect the power of firearms.

Sheriff Bruce wouldn't say how many citizens in Hinsdale County own firearms, but he did confirm that about half of the adult population holds concealed carry licenses. Colorado law states that any person may possess a firearm in his or her home, business or vehicle if it is for personal protection, without a concealed carry license. No registration is required and many people own multiple guns.

"All I can tell you is that the percentage of gun owners in Hinsdale County is very, very high," he said. "I think that's true all over the Western Slope."

Parental involvement essential

Mike Rogers, a resident of Centennial, and a safety officer at a local shooting range, said educating kids about firearm safety is actually easier in a small community.

"They can go out on their own property," he said. "It's more of a livelihood."

Rogers grew up in the Denver area. He said that his parents were actually frightened of firearms and that there were never guns in the house in which he grew up. He learned how to shoot at Boy Scout camp, and he said his grandfather had two pistols and a shotgun in his house. Rogers and his sister knew where the guns were, but never touched them.

"My grandpa showed me where they were," Rogers said. "He said, 'If you want to see them, come talk to me.' It was never illusive. It took the excitement away."

Beyond childlike curiosity and accidental firearm discoveries, some youths may intentionally seek out a gun they know exists, which is why safety education is only a start.

Matt Miller, a physician and professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, said that empirical evidence shows that firearms are more likely to be used in suicides than any other method. Young adults may act impulsively in response to what could be a fleeting crisis by making suicide attempts. Miller said that often what determines if a young adult lives or dies is what the person reaches for in that moment.

"By removing the gun from the home, you're giving them a chance to resolve the crisis," he said. "The number one thing that parents can do that decreases their child's risk of suicide is to remove the gun from the home, period, full stop."

Rogers said that his own chronic depression is a concern of his father's, especially given the firearms that he owns.

"My dad knows that with depression comes dark places," Rogers said. "It's in our family. But that connection with friends and family, they make sure that I know that my place is important in the family. I know personally that there are better times coming down the road. It's not worth it."

Rogers said that putting pressure on parents to know their kids is essential to teaching the value of life. Regardless of where those kids are being raised, in a rural county or in downtown Denver, the more the parents are involved, the better everything turns out.

"If you start there, it's a building block for everything," Rogers said. "Purity, alcohol, drug use. You get a springboard to dive into any other topic as your kids are growing up."

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